Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to railroad track components for turnouts, crossings and the like. 2. Description of Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,785 of which Applicant is inventor, provided certain improvements in railroad track crossings. Among these were a new and improved railroad track crossing which included an interchangeable insert. Among the components of the structure were support fillers and filler blocks. These two structural components had vertical contact surfaces on side portions which were adapted to mate with and fit against corresponding flat vertical surfaces formed on the upright web portion of the rail. The support fillers and filler blocks also had downwardly sloping upper and lower surfaces. These sloping surfaces were intended to conform or correspond to the conventional sloped planar surfaces present in rails or other track pieces. These sloped planar surfaces were present in rails below the wheel contact portion of the rail and also on the base portion of the rail.
However, problems have been found to exist. Due to the rolling process of forming rails, these were minor variations in the angles and ratios of these portions of the rail. The dimensions and slope of the vertical flat on the web, and the sloped surfaces below the wheel contact portion and on the base portion and their relative spacing, had minor variations in different rail members and also along the length of any one particular rail member.
It was thus difficult to achieve a proper match between the rails, filler blocks and filler members when track structures such as frogs and crossings were assembled. To the extent that a properly fitted match between these three contact surfaces was not achieved, the relative strength of the assembled structure was reduced, and the service life of the structure decreased. This could in some cases after time pose a possible safety concern.